Palace: No truth to claims of staged Marawi blast

Malacañang on Wednesday dismissed claims that the Marawi City roadside blast was staged for President Rodrigo Duterte to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus.

“That remains to be a conspiracy theory. So we ask citizens to always verify the news they receive in social media,” Communications Assistant Secreatry Kris Ablan told reporters in a Palace briefing, following social media rumors that the blast was staged.

READ: 9 soldiers, including presidential guards, wounded by Marawi bomb

“The government will not sacrifice the lives of our soldiers, you know, for the conspiracy theory that some citizens have been thinking about. It is a conspiracy theory,” he added.

Ablan assured the public that there was no reason to call for the suspension following the Marawi City blast and amid security concerns after an improvised explosive device (IED) was found near the US embassy on Monday.

“There is no talk of any suspension of the writ or any declaration for that matter. These are incidents that occurred and the authorities have tried to address, for example, if there are any lives in danger but going back to your question, there is no sentiment of declaring any such declaration or any suspension of any writ for that matter,” he said.

But the Palace official said the decision to suspend the the privilege is still up to Duterte.

READ: Duterte warns of suspension of habeas corpus writ

“Whether or not that merits a suspension is a—something that only the President can decide on,” he said.

On September 5, Duterte signed a proclamation declaring a state of national emergency on account of lawless violence.

Ablan said the proclamation was still in effect.

“From what I know the proclamation—Proclamation 55 or 56 for that matter—is still in effect. But as you can see, we are able to go on with our day-to-day lives. The proclamation is there just to make sure that there is security, peace and order around the country,” he said. RAM